[Magery] Protection?

[hawkeye_pike]

Hi there,

for a PvP mage, I wonder about using Protection or not.

Whenever I fight the people in Felucca, I notice that their spellcasting is extremely fast. Until now, I always used Protection (to avoid being interrupted while casting). It is a life saver in PvM. However, in PvP, Faster Casting cannot be higher than 0 in this case. This is annoying, cause before you have cast your spell, your enemy is off your screen. However, when I'm attacked in close combat, I never fizzle and can cure/heal myself without a problem.

My question is: For PvP, is it better to max FC and FCR, and live with the problem of being interruptable by melee attacks, poison and bleed? What is a good strategy?

 

[Arch Magus]

I would definitely run your mage without protection.
I can see how enemy casting would seem extremely fast to you, if you've always ran with Protection on.

My necromage runs no protection, 2/6.
That's max casting with magery and you need to be there as well when pvp'ing.

What kind of MACROS are you running?
In PVP, the mage with the best macros is probably going to win.
Most of mine are like this
f- target self
e- last target
d- heal
c- g heal
v- cure
b- arch cure
h- equip last wep
q w e r t 1 2 3 4 5 x - damage spells

As for Protection I've seen many, mostly necro, templates that run with it on. They can keep themselves healed and put A LOT of hurt on you because they are uniterruptable. Stacking Necro debuffs on you and whatnot.

Learn how to fight your enemy. Wear lots of DCI. Archers have a lot of trouble when they can't hit you but once every 8 seconds or more.
When fighting mages, cast lots of low circle spells (harm, magic arrow, fireball, nox, lightning), and try to get those big spells in when they are trying to heal through a dump (explode, followed by more nox, fireball, magic arrows).

Bottom line, I say keep protection off, run 2/6, and learn your macros.
Spell timing will take the longest to master, but when you do you will be a force to be reckoned with by any template.

Any other advice I can give? I've played 1 mage for 5 years and I'd love to help.

 

[Farsight]

When I first started playing on Catskills, a PvP friend gave me an object lesson.

He asked two of us non-PvP types to kill him. The first time, he used protection, the second time he didn't.

He didn't attack us, he just drank cure potions and cast mini-heals. The two of us were both playing mages and tried various tactics in order to attempt to kill him. After trying both with and without protection several times, we found that we could kill him 2 vs. 1 fairly easily when he had protection up, and we couldn't kill him most of the time when he didn't have protection.

But playing without protection means you need to have good reaction and good timing. A couple months ago, also on Cats, a friend who always PvPs had a sparring match with my weaver-mage who doesn't PvP outside of the occasional defend-a-champ. In that fight, he could react to whatever I did and move on to his next move before I even noticed what he did.

Based on those object lessons, the fact that I don't have a lot of time to "practice" and I don't cheat, I decided to leave my mages in Trammel outside of spawning in large groups (different tactics for large field fights). It'll be interesting to see what happens now that Dedigan, my necro-mage is a pirate.

 

[YuriGaDaisukiDa]

protection = -2 faster cast

soooo

if you have 2 on your jewls it will be 0

but if you also have a +1 spellbook and an arcane shield youll be back up to 2 like all the other pvpers

It is worth it if you have the gear for it you might invest in a helm of swiftness if you want to use it, that way you can use an arcane shield and no book, for potions

if you have resist on your template, you might also consider the grace helm thingy, that adds 10 resist

 

[Chaosy]

protection = -2 faster cast

soooo

if you have 2 on your jewls it will be 0

but if you also have a +1 spellbook and an arcane shield youll be back up to 2 like all the other pvpers

It is worth it if you have the gear for it you might invest in a helm of swiftness if you want to use it, that way you can use an arcane shield and no book, for potions

if you have resist on your template, you might also consider the grace helm thingy, that adds 10 resist

Incorrect.

Protection takes fc to 0. Period.

 

[Arch Magus]

Incorrect.

Protection takes fc to 0. Period.

Correct.

 

[YuriGaDaisukiDa]

damn stratics lead me astray again, their spell discription sais -2 =[

 

[GFY]

I am also torn on the protection question. My guild pvps at champs and in that area it really doesn't make too much difference. Multiple players targeting single targets almost always finish off the target protection or not.

My guild also duels. In a true 1 vs 1 situation this can make a difference. I have played with protection on and if I'm careful and use interrupt spells on my opponent I can usually wear him down even with protection on. However I do know that with protection on you become more vulnerable to paralyze spells because your resist is lowered by protection. I like to cast mind blast spells on a player to constantly interrupt them. I can time them even with protection. Then if they cast protection I paralyze them and finish them with big spells while their paralyzed.